Charleston Place Hotel Tour

Charleston Place Hotel Tour Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, surpassed only by the state capital of Columbia. Charleston is the county seat of the modern Charleston County. In 1670, Charleston was originally named Charles Towne. It moved to its present location on Oyster Point in 1680 from a location on the west bank of the Ashley River known as Albemarle Point. Charleston adopted its present name in 1783. In 1690, Charleston was the fifth largest city in North America, and remained among the ten largest cities in the United States through the 1840 census. Charleston is known as The Holy City perhaps by virtue of the prominence of churches on the low-rise cityscape, perhaps because, like Mecca, its devotees hold it so dear], and perhaps for the fact that Carolina was among the few original thirteen colonies to provide toleration for all Protestant religions, though it was not open to Roman Catholics. Many Huguenots found their way to Charleston. Carolina also allowed Jews to practice their faith without restriction. Current trends put Charleston as the fastest-growing municipality in South Carolina. The city's metropolitan area population was counted by the 2010 census at 664,607 -- the second largest in the state -- and the 75th-largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States. The city of Charleston is located just south of the midpoint of South Carolina's coastline, at the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper rivers, which flow together into the Atlantic Ocean. Charleston Harbor lies between downtown Charleston and the Atlantic Ocean. Charleston's name is derived from Charles Towne, named after King Charles II of England. In 2011, Charleston was named #1 U.S. City by Conde Nast Traveler's Readers' Choice Awards and #2 Best City in the U.S. and Canada by Travel + Leisure's World's Best Awards. Also in 2011, Bon Appetit magazine named Husk, located on Queen Street in Charleston, the Best New Restaurant in America. America's most-published etiquette expert, Marjabelle Young Stewart, recognized Charleston 1995 as the "best-mannered" city in the U.S, a claim lent credibility by the fact that it has the first established Livability Court in the country. In 2011, Travel and Leisure Magazine named Charleston "America's Sexiest City", as well as "America's Most Friendly." Subsequently, Southern Living Magazine named Charleston "the most polite and hospitable city in America." In 2012, Travel and Leisure voted Charleston as the second best-dressed city in America, only behind New York City. South Carolina's Lowcountry holds a major place of importance in African-American history for many reasons, but perhaps most importantly as a port of entry for people of African descent. According to several historians, anywhere from 40 to 60 percent of the Africans who were brought to America during the slave trade entered through ports in the Lowcountry. This has given the Lowcountry the designation among some as the "Ellis Island for African Americans," although some dispute this term, as the Ellis Island immigrants arrived voluntarily as opposed to the Africans who were captured in the Atlantic slave trade. According to Peter Wood in his book "Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 to the Stono Rebellion," the successful cultivation of rice in the Lowcountry in the 1600s was a major factor in the importation of African labor. Sir Jonathan Atkins was quoted in 1680 as saying, "Since people have found out the convenience and cheapness of slave labor they no longer keep white men, who formerly did the work on the Plantations." Joseph Corry, an Englishman who spent some time in what is now the West African nation of Sierra Leone, noted, "Rice forms the chief part of the African's sustenance." When further observation noted the skill of Africans in this region in cultivating rice, Africans from the vicinity of Sierra Leone and Ghana became especially sought-after by slave owners in the South Carolina Lowcountry. The demand for Africans in the rice-growing regions was such that, "By the time the (South Carolina) colony's Proprietors gave way to a royal government in 1720, Africans had outnumbered Europeans for more than a decade." According to Elaine Nichols of the South Carolina State Museum, Sullivan's Island, an island near Charleston, was a major port of entry for enslaved Africans. Her paper "Sullivan's Island Pest Houses: Beginning an Archeological Investigation" (1989), detailed the phenomenon of "Pest Houses," that were used to quarantine Africans upon their arrival, for fear that the Africans would have contagious diseases. The Africans would often remain confined from 10 to 40 days and 200-300 at a time would sometimes remain in isolation in the "pest houses." By 1793, residents of Sullivan's Island demanded that the pest houses be removed from the vicinity. Three years later, the houses were sold and new ones were built on nearby James Island.